Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 6 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Sunday or semidouble observance

This celebration falls in Ordinary Time after Pentecost (Time after Pentecost), a season focused on the growth of the Church and living the Christian life day by day. The feast honors a group of seven brothers together with Saints Rufina and Secunda, virgins and martyrs, remembered for their witness to Christ. The rank “Semidouble” is an older liturgical classification: in plain terms, it indicates a feast of moderate importance with its own proper prayers and readings but not as solemn as a principal feast or a solemnity. There is no octave or vigil specified here, so the observance is celebrated on the designated day without an extended eight‑day octave or special nighttime vigil.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Ps 112:1, 9
Praise the Lord, you children, praise the name of the Lord. He establishes in her home the barren wife as the joyful mother of children.
Ps 112:2
Blessed be the name of the Lord both now and forever.
Glory Be to the Father…

Grant, we beseech You, almighty God, that we who know how courageously Your holy Martyrs have confessed the faith, may experience their goodness as they intercede for us with You.
Through our Lord…

Weekly Prayer

Act of Hope

O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.

Weekly Formation

The Two Greatest Commandments

You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul and with all your mind.
To love God with the whole heart, soul, and mind is to prefer Him above every created good and to order the whole life toward Him. This love includes worship, obedience, trust, and the willing acceptance of His truth and commandments.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
To love one’s neighbor as oneself is to desire and seek the neighbor’s true good for the love of God. Every human person is a neighbor in this sense, and this charity excludes both deliberate harm and indifference to another’s genuine need.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Seven Holy Brothers

Seven Brothers, Martyrs, and Sts. Rufina and Secunda, Virgins and Martyrs

Christian saint and martyr

Born: 0101-01-01 · Rome
Died: 0165-01-01 · Rome

Felicitas of Rome, also anglicized as Felicity, is a saint numbered among the Christian martyrs. Apart from her name, the only thing known for certain about this martyr is that she was buried in the Cemetery of Maximus, on the Via Salaria on a 23 November. However, a legend presents her as the mother of the seven martyrs whose feast is celebrated on 10 July. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates their martyrdom on 25 January.

Learn more about Seven Holy Brothers

Customs & Fasting

No traditional fast · Complete abstinence

Traditional Friday complete abstinence.

Today in Church History

Dallas Diocese Settlement in Sexual Abuse Cases (1998)
1998Event
In 1998, the Diocese of Dallas reached a significant settlement of $23.4 million with nine former altar boys who alleged sexual abuse by a priest. This event marked a pivotal moment in the Catholic Church's ongoing struggle to address and rectify the issue of sexual abuse within its ranks, highlighting the need for reform and healing.
This event calls us to seek justice and healing within the Church community.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the Catechism, we learn that God established the people of Israel as a “kingdom of priests” and set apart the tribe of Levi for liturgical service. The priests of the Old Covenant were appointed to act on behalf of the people before God, offering gifts and sacrifices for sins. Yet their sacrifices had to be repeated and could not bring definitive sanctification; this would be accomplished only by Christ’s sacrifice.

Everything foreshadowed by the Old Covenant priesthood finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and humanity and the unique High Priest. By his single sacrifice on the cross, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. This redemptive sacrifice was accomplished once for all, and it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. Christ’s one priesthood is also made present through the ministerial priesthood, while Christ himself remains the true priest and ordained ministers serve in his name.

In the Catholic Church, all believers share in a common priesthood through Baptism and Confirmation, and each takes part, according to his or her vocation, in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king. This common priesthood is lived through the unfolding of baptismal grace in faith, hope, charity, and life according to the Spirit. Bishops and priests share in Christ’s one priesthood in a distinct ministerial way, serving the growth of the baptismal grace of all Christians and the communion of the Church. Through Holy Orders, ordained ministers make Christ’s presence as Head, Shepherd, high priest, and Teacher visible among the faithful; in offering the Eucharist and the Church’s prayer, they act in the name of Christ and of the whole Church. Yet ordained ministers remain subject to human weakness and sin, even though a minister’s sin cannot prevent the fruit of grace in the sacraments. As we pray and worship together, the whole Church offers herself through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ to the Father.

Today's Mass Readings

Open the day's Sancta MissaDivinum Officium · Divino Afflatu - 1954View readings

Seven Brothers, Martyrs, and Sts. Rufina and Secunda, Virgins and Martyrs

Understanding the Day

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Collect

Weekly Prayer

Act of Hope

Weekly Formation

The Two Greatest Commandments

The Two Greatest Commandments

Saint & Feast

Seven Holy Brothers

Customs & Fasting

Today in Church History

Dallas Diocese Settlement in Sexual Abuse Cases (1998)

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3